A Tacit Understanding (Silver / Slate)

Location

Country: France
City: Paris
Place: British Embassy

In her series A Tacit Understanding, Jennifer Douglas applies gold and silver leaf to canvases covered with industrial floor paint. The works are then tarnished using natural chemical reactions. These paintings resist the symbolism of wealth usually associated with precious metals, and instead allude to the elemental properties of materials and their inevitable decline. Describing her work with silver leaf, the artist  explains:

I’m really fascinated by how it can alter over time. It  allows the work to go beyond being something I make in my  studio by having a continued momentum to change; an  entropic dimension, a non-static energy.

Over time, the painterly lustre of A Tacit Understanding (Silver / Slate) transforms from silver through gold towards a bruised purple and silver.  

Places

Subjects

abstract

Materials & Techniques

silver leaf, linen, painting (as object name), floor paint

Artist

Jennifer Douglas (1975 - )

Title

A Tacit Understanding (Silver / Slate)

Date

2017

Medium

Silver leaf and floor paint on linen

Dimensions

height: 149.8 cm, width: 119.8 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Workplace Gallery, December 2017

Provenance

Workplace Gallery; purchased by GAC December 2017

GAC number

18743